Page - 49 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Heinz Bonfadelli | Media Use of Ethnic Minority Youth 49 Life Situation Language Skills Extent of Integration Preference for Information and Entertainment Use of Turkish and German-language Media Content Figure 2: Theoretical Model of Media Use (based on Weiß/Trebbe 2001) A further major research concern is to determine the impact of ethnicity compared to other social divisions. Recently, the concept of “social capital” has been discussed in the context of media use, political participation and the integration of migrants (e.g. Jacobs/Tillie 2004). It is assumed that being embedded in social networks – an indicator of social capital – is an important factor influencing the level of media use and, furthermore, the level of trust in the political system. 2.2 Media Effects Paradigm In comparison with the uses and gratifications approach, the media effects paradigm (Bonfadelli 2004) focuses not on media use itself, but on social integration on a macro level. In a complementary way, then, the cultural studies paradigm deals with cultural identity on a micro level. According to most functionalist theories, media perform unplanned and long-term socialization and integration functions for a society by bridging different social and ethnic groups and assimilating different people into a common civil culture (Schudson, 1994; Peeters/d’Haenens 2005). In this view, then, the use of majority host country media by ethnic minorities will result in better social and cultural integration. On the other hand, it is hypothesized that the persistent use of media from the homeland and in the language of origin will help maintain individuals’ old cultural identity and will thus have detrimental effects on integration. One normative consequence would be that ethnic minority groups should use the majority media available in the new host country in its language to fully integrate into the new socio-cultural context.